Why You Need Brand Architecture.

Like many of our clients, you may be challenged with a multitude of brands, products, subsidiaries and corporate brand initiatives. Maybe, you have a single, ‘monolithic’ brand, but that brand needs to bridge to a variety of disparate audiences, who each carry differing points of view and relate to your brand in differing ways — and to […]

Like many of our clients, you may be challenged with a multitude of brands, products, subsidiaries and corporate brand initiatives. Maybe, you have a single, ‘monolithic’ brand, but that brand needs to bridge to a variety of disparate audiences, who each carry differing points of view and relate to your brand in differing ways — and to different benefits.

Regardless of your brand’s structure, these are complex issues — especially when you are charged with trying to communicate these benefits and resources, individually and as a whole (and in various combinations). Benefits that need to be conveyed in marketing, sales and content messaging.

(Cohesion’s Marketing Architecture Example)

It’s a common problem and one that we’ve spent the past 15 years studying and addressing. Because one of the biggest issues facing many companies, is one of brand and marketing architecture.

Regardless of size or structure, every brand needs architecture.

Before you can develop the best method of distributing a message, you have to have the right message. And before you can have the right message, you have to have the right messaging structure. A structure that leverages every possible efficiency; one that gives individual brand assets and the overall brand the best possible chance for success.

As technology drives new marketing platforms and as audiences have fragmented, the problem has worsened. Today, many companies continue to produce one-off marketing efforts that while singularly successful, often neglect greater corporate objectives — or worse — do strategic harm to them.

Marketing Architecture: A Creative Guide

Once a solid brand positioning+messaging architecture is developed, it functions not only as a strategic platform to focus and direct marketing assets, but also as a key creative guide, translating messaging strategy into tangible and relevant stories. Overarching Story Platforms work to articulate those individual stories (business, brand, sales and other) that best showcase what the brand is, how it works to differentiate, and how it benefits internal and external audiences.

(Example Story Platform Element)

While this process works well for many types of clients, it works especially well for sales driven organizations that have the need to explain complex solutions in concise and simple terms.

Once developed, these Story Platforms can function as the next layer of messaging to drive internal and external communication, and can be repurposed and delivered in a number of executional tools (traditional advertising, video, digital, PR, internal communications, and more).

Brian Creath is the president and strategy director of Cohesion, a nationally recognized strategic brand agency. He has helped hundreds of businesses and brands achieve success in a 30-year career. Email him at bcreath@cohesioncompany.com.